*sneaks in*
There's a difference between 'Whatever floats your boat, I guess' and 'You're stupid if you think a higher power is going to save you now/after you die!!1!1'. Same difference between 'Dude, whatever, I don't believe in god' and 'You're going to BURN IN HELL FOR EVARRR!11!'.
The amount of the burn-in-hell crap is less than the 'DUDE UR STOOPID' crap, but they are trying to overdo the being vocal thing. The amount of fanaticism and zeal oozing from both extremist sides is what gets me (gets me laughing, I mean). And for the record, I don't give a damn if you believe in a god; mine or otherwise, a benevolent force, a pantheon of gods or actively refuse their 'alleged' existence, whatever. And I'm a religious type, too. And I can understand the evangelists being zealous, but seeing the same zeal in atheists is a bit intriguing.
I'm not feeling threatened by the presence of agnostics and atheists, and sure as hell (hmm, nice analogy there isn't it) I have no intents of forcing anyone any religious thought. The second you go aggressive, however, I (and almost everyone else) will try to defend ourselves. And in the years of scrounging so many forums (had internets since 98, it's been over 10 years... damnit I'm getting old) I've mostly seen atheists attacking. The atheists I've encountered were almost always on the attack, on an aggressive track to 'deliver the shackled minds from it's chains'. As organized political and philosophical formations, religions have learned (or are painstakingly learning) not to attack non-believers. Theists from different religions can live in peace (Christians, Jews and Muslims in the US manage to do so, last decade's negativities withstanding), so some of us just want to accept you as yourselves and get on with our lives.
Anyway, my major point is this: If extremely vocal theists are zealous, how would you describe the extremely vocal atheists? Vigorous? Filled with fervor? Because, as an outsider, it just seems like the same crap. I can see why the god (or gods, or whatever) can be so important to a religious person, but why is this belief
so important to the atheists?
Oh by the way...
I'm not a Christian. I'm a Muslim. A Muslim that thinks favoring ritualism over symbolism is not the way to go.
And with that being said, I'm going to eat my popcorn, watching this thread.
Edit: Believing in Axe Cop is tempting, though.